TOEFL Vs IELTS Which Does One Pick?

If you are planning an MS abroad, an additional requirement apart from the GRE will be an English Language Test. The most popular ones are the IELTS and TOEFL.

Understand that both TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and the IELTS (International English Language Testing Services) are intended for students planning to do their higher education at a foreign country.

Typically, a student whose first language isn’t English will be required to take one of these English Language Tests. Both these tests evaluate students on four functional areas: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. How they do this though, varies.

Which of these tests do you write?

Short answer: Find out which test the universities you’ve shortlisted accept. Write that test!

But of late, universities have begun accepting either of the test scores. In this case making a decision on which to write can be difficult.

To make a decision let’s figure out how these tests are different.

The obvious difference is that IELTS is a paper based test, TOEFL is a iBT, which expands to internet Based Test. The TOEFL is taken on a computer. Beyond this let’s take a closer look at the tests section wise.

Writing

While writing is done on-screen on TOEFL, responses are to be handwritten on the IELTS.
This could be a factor for those who have either very slow typing speeds or those who have an aversion to writing on paper!

Speaking

IELTS conducts its speaking module separate from the other sections. It is either done right after the written test is completed or perhaps a day or two after. One is required to speak to an examiner, luckily the kind of questions that the examiner can ask is highly structured.

TOEFL on the other hand requires you to speak into a microphone (that is recorded on the computer). Your responses will be recorded and there will be a stipulated amount of time for preparing and speaking (not unlike IELTS). For example you will be given a 15 second window to prepare a response and a period of 30 seconds to speak during. There will be an onscreen timer that tells you the time you have remaining.

Of course this will be a concern only if either speaking face-to-face with an examiner seems extremely daunting or you are completely incapable of speaking to a computer as a timer ticks away!

Listening

Listening on the IELTS is straightforward,you’ll have to listen to the respective tracks, you’ll have some questions on your test sheet which you will have to answer! How it gets tricky is that you’ll be required to make sense of pictographic data and relate it to what you are listening to.

Students find one thing about the IELTS very frustrating: the recordings of people speaking with accents that could range across the whole of Europe. This is a big problem with a lot of people who have difficulty perceiving foreign accents!

TOEFL on the other hand integrates listening with reading and you will have to respond either by writing a response or speaking out your response (this links back to Speaking and Writing)

Listening should be a point of concern to make a decision on if foreign accents baffle you – god forbid you are played a lecture given by a Scottish man!

Reading

Reading on the TOEFL will have a very similar look and feel as does the GRE reading. It will obviously not be as mind wrenching though. Reading on both and TOELF and IELTS are more or less comparable except for the fact that one is done on a computer and the other on paper.

There are many other pivotal differences between the IELTS and the TOEFL could help you make a decision between the two. The best way to figure this out is by taking an official mock test of each of these tests and getting a feel of the test first hand.

Do you have any questions about these two tests? Leave your comments below and our GRE experts will respond!

ARAVIND B T

Quant Trainer

Aravind is an alumnus of UVCE, Bangalore. As a student, Aravind would always feel that there were easier ways of explaining a concept and would end up experimenting with them when he helped his friends out with things they didn’t understand. This is when he discovered that he enjoyed teaching and he had a natural flair for it. As fate would have it, immediately after graduating with his engineering degree, he was picked up by a Test prep firm to teach Quant for CAT. There has been no looking back since then. He has 12 years of experience of having taught Quant for GMAT, GRE, CAT and other competitive exams.

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MATOO GUPTA

Quant & Verbal Trainer

Matoo is an Economics Masters graduate from the University of Amsterdam who loves gaming test strategies almost as much as he loves teaching. He was all set to go to business school and join the corporate world until he realised what he was truly passionate about was teaching and corrected course. He believes the best way to take on a test is to believe you can beat it first, and this comes through in his attitude and approach to teaching. When not coaching for the GMAT, Matoo is an avid cricket and football fan, loves hip-hop and is a total History, Philosophy & Politics nut.

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SHRIKANTH SINGH

Verbal Trainer

Shrikant is an alumnus of ISB Hyderabad and IIT Kharagpur. He has 4 years of work experience in Analytics pre MBA and is currently part of the Amazon India Business team as a Sr. Category Manager. A travel junkie at heart, Shrikant has a special affinity to Goa and visits the place once every quarter. He loves using humor to teach his students as he believes it aids in their learning process and is always on the lookout for new opportunities to engage his class.

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ANKIT SHAH

MBA Mentor | Said Business School

Ankit graduated from Said Business School (University of Oxford) in 2016 and currently works as a Senior Product and Change Manager at Tesco. His role sits within the Supply Chain department for the largest grocery retailer in UK (world’s third largest retailer by profits). Prior to that, he has 5 years of experience in Project Management for IT solutions delivery for Fortune 500 consumer goods and retail customers across the US, UK, LATAM and Europe.
With a keen interest in volunteering and pro bono consulting, Ankit cares for social issues and engages closely with non-profits in India and UK

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SIDDHARTH SOMASUNDARAN

MBA Mentor, NUS Business School, Singapore

Siddharth is an alumnus of the NUS Business School, Singapore and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from India. He has worked across functions predominantly in Marketing & Sales Operations at Siemens and GE for close to a decade and is now a Director of Business Development for a leading Artificial Intelligence company headquartered in Singapore.
He has also been an Assistant Facilitator at NUS Business School for a module on ‘Leadership and Communication’ targeted at master’s students. His passions include playing football, scuba diving and mentoring. As a mentor at CrackVerbal, he aspires to make a meaningful difference in the lives of MBA aspirants through consultative coaching on a wide range of MBA related topics.

Sounds like someone you’d like to connect and work with for your MBA journey?

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MATOO GUPTA

Quant & Verbal Trainer

Matoo is an Economics Masters graduate from the University of Amsterdam who loves gaming test strategies almost as much as he loves teaching. With a GRE score of 336 and a CAT percentile of 98.2, he was all set to go to business school and join the corporate world until he realised what he was truly passionate about was teaching and corrected course. He believes the best way to take on a test is to believe you can beat it first, and this comes through in his attitude and approach to teaching. When not coaching for the GRE, Matoo is an avid cricket and football fan, loves hip-hop and is a total History, Philosophy & Politics nut.

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MONIKA KAMATH

Verbal Trainer

Monika Kamath is the head of Finance & Strategic Alliances at CrackVerbal. She is a seasoned banker with a social bent of mind merging finance, entrepreneurial spirit, and sound business principles. 7 years since her first class, Monika still enjoys guiding students face the challenge she once faced – the GMAT. In her spare time, she finds herself concentrating on fitness and is also lured by the art of story-telling.

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Shreekala Kurup

Application Mentor

Shreekala, COO at CrackVerbal, has a strong background in operations (PMP, Six Sigma), accrued during her 7-year stint with Hewlett-Packard, where she worked in client facing roles for marquee customers. She is a fellow of the ISB Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs program. At Crackverbal, Shreekala has channeled her corporate experience and deep understanding of the world of management to help thousands of students and professionals make the right choices amongst a plethora of options.

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ADITYA KUMAR

Quant Trainer

Aditya is an engineer by qualification, an alumnus of the famous M.S Ramaih institute of Technology. His foray into teaching was a serendipitious accident, but once he discovered how good he was at it, he has not looked back. He has 3 years of test-prep experience, teaching GMAT, GRE and SAT. His super-power is his ability to uncomplicate a tangled mess of information into simple, byte-sized facts. He loves numbers and think they tell a story, if you listen closely enough. His favorite pursuits on a weekend are reading, playing football, and heading to the newest zomato-recommended restaurant on the block.

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ADITYA KUMAR

Quant Trainer

Aditya is an engineer by qualification, an alumnus of the famous M.S Ramaih institute of Technology. His foray into teaching was a serendipitious accident, but once he discovered how good he was at it, he has not looked back. He has 3 years of test-prep experience, teaching GMAT, GRE and SAT. His super-power is his ability to uncomplicate a tangled mess of information into simple, byte-sized facts. He loves numbers and think they tell a story, if you listen closely enough. His favorite pursuits on a weekend are reading, playing football, and heading to the newest zomato-recommended restaurant on the block.

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SHRIKANTH SINGH

Industry Mentor

Shrikant is an alumnus of ISB Hyderabad and IIT Kharagpur. He has 4 years of work experience in Analytics pre MBA and is currently part of the Amazon India Business team as a Sr. Category Manager. A travel junkie at heart, Shrikant has a special affinity to Goa and visits the place once every quarter. He loves using humor to teach his students as he believes it aids in their learning process and is always on the lookout for new opportunities to engage his class.

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SANNIDHI JHALA

MBA Mentor | ISB

Sannidhi is an ISB Alumnus with 6 years of experience in multiple FMCG functions such as front-end Key-Account management, Supply chain operations and back-end Manufacturing. Sannidhi is also a trained soft skills coach for associates in India and Nepal. Sannidhi majored in Marketing and Strategy from ISB and has extensive industry knowledge to guide future MBA aspirants on the path of Marketing and Strategy management.

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SANNIDHI JHALA

Verbal Trainer

Sannidhi has over 5 years of experience across the operations field. She is an alumnus of Indian School of Business -Hyderabad, majoring in Marketing & Strategy and is currently working for beverage giant, Coca-Cola as an Area Key Accounts Manager. At CrackVerbal, she is both an admissions consultant and a GMAT trainer with a focus on teaching RC the right way!

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ARUN JAGANNATHAN

Verbal Trainer

Arun has trained and mentored over 6000 students for the GMAT, GRE and applications in the past 12 years. Arun has personally designed the CrackVerbal GMAT curriculum from the ground up to include every feature he saw as missing in traditional courses and has also devised all-new techniques to help out students. He is an active and well-respected member on popular online GMAT forums such as Pagalguy.com (member since 2003, and one of the official MBA consultants), beatthegmat.com and gmatclub.com.

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SUDHANSHU DUTTA

MBA Mentor | Judge School of Business

Sudhanshu is an alumnus of Judge School of Business, Cambridge and works as a Principal Consultant with TechnoPak Advisors. He has 7+ years of experience across FMCG and agricultural product companies, in geographies such as the Middle-east, Africa and East Asia, in supply chain management and logistics. At CrackVerbal, he leverages his diverse knowledge and experiences to inspire clients to find the careers and B-schools that best fit them.

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AL AMEEN SHERFUDDEEN

MBA Mentor | ISB

Al-Ameen is an alumnus of ISB Hyderabad. He is a digital marketing enthusiast who has worked with many top brands in helping them re-target their audience. Al-Ameen is a backpacker, rapper, karaoke artist and emcee who has been featured in the Economic Times. Currently, he works as a senior account manager at Visual IQ, in the marketing attribution and analytics space.

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PRADYOT ANAND

MBA Mentor | ISB

Pradyot has 10+ years of professional experience spanning strategy & planning, management consulting, and technology across industries in Asia, USA, and Eastern Europe. An alumnus of ISB Hyderabad, Pradyot graduated in the top 10% of the ISB batch and made the Dean’s List. He has served on the Admissions Interview Panel at ISB for many years and mentored many successful MBA candidates. He is an expert on all things MBA and knows exactly what makes an AdCom tick.

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AKSHAY YADHAV

MBA Mentor| Haas School of Business

Akshay is currently a student at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He started his career in the telecom industry after completing his undergraduate degree in engineering, and then started his own venture, an environmental non-profit related to solid waste management in Bangalore. He is passionate about technology, sustainability and energy and is exploring these areas at Haas. He also enjoys teaching and mentoring, trekking, biking, and cooking.

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ARUN JAGANNATHAN

MBA Coach

Founder and CEO at CrackVerbal, Arun brings to the table expert insights into the value of an MBA. Much of this knowledge he accrued over the years, as a mentor to hundreds of students who walked the MBA path and made transitions to their post-MBA careers. He also brings with him a plethora of information specific to individual programs given his extensive network among the B-school community, including admissions committee members at top-B schools across the globe. Arun provides guidance to MBA aspirants on forums such as BeattheGMAT, GMATClub and Quora.

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ARUNA PRABHAKARN

MBA Mentor | Wharton School of Business

Aruna is a Wharton alumnus with 12 years of work experience in the healthcare industry. Her track record includes advisory and execution for change management initiatives, Vendor selection strategy for population health, Digital design, business process improvement and transformation. Aruna also has significant start-up experience as a product development manager for ZeOmega’s Jiva platform developing care management workflow solutions

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MRUNALINI BHATE

MBA Mentor | Oxford School of Business

Mrunalini graduated from Oxford, MBA class of 2015. She has 6 years of advisory experience and works for a Big4’s Global Structuring team in Singapore. She is an expert in pricing cross border transactions and building tax-effective structures for clients in e-commerce, manufacturing, FMCG and banking. Mrunalini is a Chartered Accountant from India and an ACCA charter-holder from Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK. Having lived earlier in Mumbai, Hong Kong, and UK, she cherishes her truly international MBA experience. She is passionate about helping MBA aspirants. As a part of the Alumni Panel at Oxford Business Alumni Singapore Chapter, she regularly mentors prospective students. In her free time, she enjoys networking, traveling and adventure sports.

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NAMRATHA SHETTY

MBA Mentor | Said Business School

Namratha Shetty graduated from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (UK) in 2013, and has a B.E. degree in Electronics & Communications. She strongly believes in the motto – ‘Persevere to the end’, and used to be a National-level swimmer representing Karnataka. Namratha has a total of 8.5 years of experience across the FMCG (3 years till date) and Technology (5.5 years) industries, with nearly 6.5 years in the Marketing function.

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RAHUL CHOWDHURY

MBA Mentor | Kellogg School of Management

Rahul has more than 10 years experience in creating and running $ 100 Million+ businesses. He has a proven track record of delivering on challenging marketing assignments across emerging and developed markets. He is a 2013 graduate from Kellogg School of Management and currently works as a Marketing Manager for the Billion $ brand ‘Lysol’ based out of New York. Prior to Kellogg, he was a Brand Manager growing ITC’s INR 450 crore confectionary business and spearheaded the team responsible for ITCs entry into the ‘Chewing Gums’ industry. Rahul also has a bachelor in Computer Engineering from NIT. Rahul is closely involved in the Kellogg NY chapter and is also an active admission panel member for Kellogg. He is the winner of multiple national case competitions / paper writing competition and has represented Kellogg in Ivy league Marketing competitions.

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GAUTHAM MUTHUKUMAR

MBA Mentor | Indian School Of Business

Gautham is an ISB & NIT Trichy alumnus with an overall experience of 6 years in IT and related industries. He started his career as software developer in the telecommunication industry. Later he worked as a technology consultant with Deloitte and is currently working with Amazon as a program manager where he manages a 50+ member tech-ops team. He majored in technology and finance domains at ISB and graduated as a part of dean’s list (top 10% of the batch). He also received the torch-bearer award at ISB given to 5% of the students for making significant contribution to the school. He enjoys teaching and mentoring students of all age groups. He likes to follow comics in his leisure time.

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RITWIK VERMA

MBA Mentor | Carnegie Mellon University

Starting my career in Accenture, I worked in Business Intelligence domain for 6 years. In this duration, I worked for clients across Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Utilities and Capital Markets. With the intent to build a career in technology, I decided to pursue an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. An internship opportunity at eBay allowed me to understand the challenges of technology leadership role as a Product Manager. I joined eBay full time as a Senior Product Manager and currently lead key initiatives driving customer trust for eBay globally.

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SATHISH SELVADHURAI

MBA Mentor |Indian School of Business

Satish is an ISB alumnus and a recipient of the ‘ISB Torch Bearer’ award. He is a highly motivated professional who is currently heading the online B2C sales at Aditya Birla Fashion & retail. Satish was also recognized as one of India’s most promising young managers under the age of 30 by the Economic times in 2017.

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SHERIN KURIAN

MBA Mentor | Duke – Fuqua School of Business

Sherin is an MBA with Fuqua School of Business (Duke Univerisity). Currently she works for Apple and is based out of Sunnyvale California. She has extensive experience working on Supply Chain Management and currently manages the Supply Chain for Apple phones. She worked with Oracle for 4 years before her MBA at Duke. She has been mentoring many students over the years now to get into Top schools.

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MANOJ PUTHANVEETIL

Verbal Trainer

Manoj is a Management Graduate from the University of Leicester, UK. After working in various roles with different companies, he discovered his passion for training and has been in the industry for over 3 years. He is a certified TESOL trainer through Oxford Trinity College, London and has brought his love for and strength in the English language into Verbal training for competitive exams such as GRE, GMAT, SAT, IELTS and TOEFL. He believes that the classroom is his stage and brings all his energy into the classroom to put on a very engaging and informative show.

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SAVIO D’SOUZA

Verbal Trainer

Savio is as alumnus of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Despite having an enriching corporate working experience, Savio likes spending his weekends with GMAT aspirants giving them all it takes to ace the GMAT. His students like him for the energy he exudes in class.

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MANOJ PUTHANVEETIL

Verbal Trainer

Manoj is a Management Graduate from the University of Leicester, UK. After working in various roles with different companies, he discovered his passion for training and has been in the industry for over 3 years. He is a certified TESOL trainer through Oxford Trinity College, London and has brought his love for and strength in the English language into Verbal training for competitive exams such as GRE, GMAT, SAT, IELTS and TOEFL. He believes that the classroom is his stage and brings all his energy into the classroom to put on a very engaging and informative show.

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ARUN JAGANNATHAN

Verbal Trainer

Arun, founder and CEO at CrackVerbal, has trained and mentored over 4000 students for the GMAT, GRE and applications in the past 11 years.Arun has personally designed the CrackVerbal GRE curriculum from the ground up to include every feature he saw as missing in traditional courses and has also devised all-new techniques to help out students. His expertise in the subject helps him understand the specific pain points that students face on the test

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SALONI CHOUHAN

Verbal Trainer

Always the one with the mic, Saloni invariably had the knack for public speaking. Before she realized it, she entered the teaching field and never looked back. Teaching became her first love and interaction with students her forte. Having all the experiences of being a student, she believes in making the class informative and fun in turn enabling the students’ to unlock their inner champion and potential. When not teaching the GRE, Saloni can be found enjoying the great outdoors, listening to music and relishing incredible food.